A big thank you to all the parents who attended our last Yarning Session With Parents on Tuesday August 20th and contributed to an art workshop off site, that will be represented in the Gawura Strategic Plan. The working lunch that occurred on the day, was a delight.

By now you would have seen some wonderful photos from our annual Book Character Parade which was held on Friday 23rd August. The Gawura students got right into the spirit of the event and we thank everyone for the marvellous display of various costumes and outfits.

Congratulations to Yr 6 student Maya who has gone through to the CIS Athletics Carnival as the ASISSA Age Champion. We are looking forward to seeing how Maya goes at this next level, state event.

This coming Wednesday 4th September is the national Indigenous Literacy Day which is run by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Our Gawura Stage 3 students will be performing a song written by the students of Barunga Remote Community School in the Northern Territory about a one hour drive south east of Katherine. Our students will be performing this song with Justine Clarke, Josh Pike, Greg Dreiss and Jessica Mauboy.

Finally, we wish Bryden all the very best as he performs in this years JSGS drama production of the 33 Little Pigs. Gawura School and Junior School students will have the opportunity to see one of the 4 performances commencing on Wed 11th September and concluding on Friday 13th September.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

We are pleased to advise that the School’s enrolment numbers for 2025 are looking very strong, with most year groups already full with waitlists.

While we try to prioritise siblings, we can only do so if we have space available, so if you have other children you would like to enrol at St Andrew's, please apply as early as possible. As Year 7 2027 and Year 5 2026 enrolment interviews have commenced, applications for these year groups must be submitted as soon as possible. Please email Mr Bruce Perry bperry@sacs.nsw.edu.au if you are uncertain as to whether you have already applied.

If you are intending on withdrawing your child at the end of the year, please send an email to myself bperry@sacs.nsw.edu.au and the relevant Head of Junior School, Middle School and/or Senior College, as soon as possible. The School does require 10 school weeks’ notice of withdrawal as per the enrolment Terms and Conditions (otherwise 10 weeks of school fees will be charged).

A huge thankyou to parents and students who have been speaking so highly of the School to others – referrals are by far our largest source of new enrolments. A recommendation from our current families is the highest praise to receive and we are most appreciative.

Mr Bruce Perry
Registrar

Managing screentime

For many families, there has been a noticeable increase in the amount of time they are spending on screen-based devices, and they are struggling to find a helpful balance in boundaries and rules around screen use. Some deal with digital conflict and tech-tantrums daily. The latest research found that 77% of teenagers spend more than five hours on screens per day, but it is important to note that not all screen time is considered equal.

Parents play a crucial role in modelling a positive and healthy approach to using screens and assisting children to navigate the content they watch. It is important to model and mentor screen use, rather than just monitoring it. Children tend to do more of what they see us do and less of what we tell them to do. However, it is still important to outline the risks and highlight the benefits of screen use to ensure you keep a balanced attitude. Encourage discussions around the issues that people experience in monitoring their screen time and be honest about your own difficulties.

Parents are encouraged to remain firm in their approach to managing screen time. Excessive screen time can be detrimental to a child’s overall wellbeing. Ensuring the correct privacy settings are in place is vital to prevent children from being inadvertently exposed to inappropriate content or online predators. Parents need to also be mindful of the potential impact screen time can have on a child’s social, emotional, educational, behavioural, and even physical domains. In this edition of SchoolTV, a range of guidelines and strategies are provided to help manage screen time at home. 

Jersey Day in Junior School and Gawura
Thank you to all who were involved. Collectively we raised over $250 which has been donated to Anglican Aid to help with quality healthcare to those in need.

Child safe practices

Child safety is of paramount importance at St Andrew's and as a result we are constantly reviewing and seeking to improve our practices.  As a part of this we have recently implemented additional ways for students to report anything which may be impacting on their sense of safety and wellbeing. Students in Junior School and Gawura now have two ways that they can report any concerns:

• There is a post-box at reception which K- 6 students can put a note in.
• For students’ Year 3 and above there is also a “student reporting form” tab on their student portal.

Mrs Bronwyn Wake
Head of Character and Wellbeing (K-12)

Premier’s Reading Challenge wrap up!

The Premier’s Reading Challenge 2024 has finally come to a close and our wall of readers is very full. In the Junior School we had 229 students who completed the Challenge and in Gawura we had 30 students complete the Challenge, totalling 259 students in all. A great effort but we’re going to aim higher than 60% for next year!

Our final congratulations goes to the following students who managed to log all of their books just before the close:

Kindergarten
Eleanor Ackard
Paige Addabbo
Ethan Anderson
Jaimie Cooney
Jude Dunphy
Beau-Jesse Finemore
Alexander Li
Max Li
Elise Lin
Aliya Liu
Keanu Lolohea
Are Madden
Sterling McPherson
Roxi Nikoloski-Cullia
Leo Radosevic
Nael Ramanan
Ethan Smith
Mika Tychenko
Harry Wang

Year 1
Laura Wu

Year 2
Alessandra Dalati
Sophia Hickie
Hu Hu
Eve Lolohea
Christopher Wood

Year 3
Nicholas Pavel
Lucas Wu

Year 4
Ameline Bradsell

Year 5
Lara Farley
Willa Goyal
Leon Kenny
Abigail Mather

Year 6
Felicity Black
Joseph Castillo
Abigail Findlay
Samuel Frederick
Sophie Inaty
Lovelyn Nakashima
Kushi Nireshwalia
Ella Sands
Esther Shang
Austin Sneesby
Madeleine Tran

Read more books!

With the close of the PRC also comes the close of our Read More Challenge. This Challenge requires students to read an extra 10 books after completing the PRC. For every 10 books, students can enter into our fortnightly prize draw of books to the value of $25.

Congratulations to our final Read More Prize Draw winners: Beatrix, Dearden, Jamison, Claire and Miro.

Book Week 2024 – A most magical week

Book Week kicked off this year with a range of before-school activities and lunchtime fun in the Library. Transformed into a variety of magical lands, our Library was part Hogwarts, part Wonderland and part Never Never.

Before school our Library Monitors donned wings, tiaras, headdresses, hats and capes to become Book Fairies and Word Wizards, reading to our younger students. I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, but there were smiles all ‘round.

Our lunchtime activities included making hand ‘hooks’, wands and crowns. On our Dr Seuss Day we coloured Thing 1 bookmarks and made headbands. Our last activity was inspired by Kate and Jol Temple’s Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Shortlisted book, That Bird has arms. Students loved choosing a bird, adding some arms and writing dialogue to go with their bird for our collaborative display.

Although our author visit with Tim Harris had to be re-scheduled at the last moment, the culmination of our Book Week celebrations, the Book Character Parade made up for the disappointment! It truly matched the theme of “Reading is Magic” with a most magical morning of music, cheering, singing and parading. 

Extremely well-attended by our parents, this year’s parade was a spectacle of colour, as class by class presented themselves to our esteemed judges, Dr Julie McGonigle (Head of School), Reverend Craig Tubman (School Chaplain) and Mrs Louise St John (Head of Library, Secondary School).

This year saw many ‘group’ costumes, cleverly created and wonderfully innovative in how they were presented. There’s no shortage of imagination amongst our students (and parents). 

Prizes were awarded for Best Costume and Highly Commended for each class. Congratulations to:

KJ: Annabel Nicholls, Ellie Ackad and Aliya Liu

KN: Elise Dethridge, Alexandra Harvey and Jude Dunphy

KGP: Blossom Maxwell and Christian Lesa

1V: Annabelle Iloski, Necia Ackad and Jaden Low

1W: Azure Hastings, Aahana Dua and Zoe Koudrin

1/2GM: Hazel Charles and Amaali Dower-McGurgen

2D: Christopher Wilcoxen, Edward Hooper, Kip Wood

2S: Billie Cooney, Jacob Gerges and Tynan McDonald

3D: Lachlan Lee-Vytrhlik, Charlie Wood and Rose Coleman

3G: Henry Dethridge, Cameron Harvey and Tyson Happer

3H: William Crocker, Daniel Koudrin and Lara Forbes

3/4GC: George Rose and Gianni Baines

4F: Liam Burman, Gabby Lam and Thomas Cipriani-Hall

4L: Vera Wang, Robbie Pazich and Oliver Baker

4M: Max Clarke, Hal Bergin-Fisher and James Carroll

5F: Teddy Miles, Sam Cobb and Celia Nievas-Lema

5H: Marcus Davidson, Edward Chiu and Ethan Poon

5L: (Group) Annabelle Tee, Lara Farley, Isabella Greenhow, Florence Eager and Alyria Natividad; Zachary Beck and Gabriel Borges-Koomen

5GM: BJ Carr and Latrell McGrath

5W: Jesse Low, (Group) Benjamin McDonald, Patrick Bloxsam, Hugo Balasingham; and Nick Baines

6C: Lovelyn Nakashima, (Group) Sophie Inaty, Lola Cassar, Tara Loughry, Charlene Goh; and Angus Sime

6L: Aadya Dua, Hugo Martin and Jamie Tan

6M: (Group) Grace Feng, Alexis Fraser, Olivia Wang; Ella Sands and Isobel Cornelius

6S: Margot Stiles, Maxwell Buxton and Grace Woodall

6W: Douglas Madden, Esther Davis and Olympia Arvanitellis

An enormous thank you to our parents and carers who make, create, sew and fund materials or costumes so that our students can celebrate the magic of characters and the stories they tell.

Following our Parade, parents and students attended our first Book Week Book Fair in Chapter House. The Book Fair not only adds to our families' personal bookshelves, but every sale contributes to books for our school. Again, our generous parents and carers also donated books to our Library as well as Anglicare’s Toys ‘n’ Tucker Appeal. The Book Fair was a great success and we already have plans to make it bigger and better next year.

Creative competitions

It would not be a Book Week without creative competitions and this year was no different.

Our K-2 Competition saw students tasked with the creation of a magical world in 3D, using recycled objects. Patricia M in 1/2GM created an out of this world alien landscape with movable objects and colourful foliage to win First Place. Congratulations also to Beatrix D in 1W who created a land of snakes and creatures, taking out High Commendations.

Year 3 and 4 students competed to draw and write a magical portal land. Gabriella L from 4F was awarded First Place for ‘Seashell Enchantment’, an adventure to an underwater world with a seashell as the portal.

Finally, Year 5 and 6 students honed their prompt writing skills to use Artificial Intelligence to create an alternate “Reading is Magic” poster. There were many excellent entries in this category but Jonathan W in 5W took out First Place as he truly captured the concept of the transformative nature of reading with an enormous dragon towering over the reader. High Commendation went to Isabelle W for her perfectly positioned couch with children looking through a window to the world of character beyond.

What a busy few weeks it has been, but what a delight! I can’t wait to do it all over again.

Mrs Rachael Cosentino
Junior School and Gawura Library Coordinator

Puzzles, Riddles and Codes Club

The Puzzles, Riddles and Codes Club is an exciting academic opportunity for students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. Within this club, students are tasked with solving a number of complex problems and challenges. These challenges facilitate the development of rich problem-solving skills, as well as critical and creative thinking. 

Each Puzzles, Riddles and Codes Club session has three components. Firstly, students solve riddles using skills of analysis, word association and logical reasoning.

Can you solve these riddles from our last session?

1. The more of this there is, the less you see... What am I?
2. What has a neck but no head, and arms but no hands?
3. What goes through towns and over mountains, but never moves?

Following their riddle investigation, students solve picture puzzles by identifying patterns and differences. These puzzles deepen short term visual memory and attention skills. Students also utilise observation and concentration strategies to notice details in the puzzles.

To conclude the session, students use codes to solve and write secret messages. These code activities require students to correctly organise images and terms to communicate using symbolic language.

Can you solve the code below and write your own message?

Below are some reflections from students currently involved in the puzzles, riddles and codes club:

"I like the riddles because you get to think of ideas and learn new things. I also like the puzzles because you have to spot differences and use your mind."
- Ariana Kozinets (KN)

"I like the riddles and codes activities in our club. I am starting to learn how to use codes and create my own at home. I recently created a code using dots and lines."
- Holliday Sze (IW)

"My favourite part of the Puzzles, Riddles and Codes Club is the riddles. It is always tricky to find the answer, but that makes it fun. My favourite riddle so far is, ‘I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?’ The answer is seven!"
- Oliver Chapman (2S)

Riddle answers 1. Darkness, 2. A Shirt, 3. Roads

Mosman Youth Awards in Literature

Congratulations to Isabelle Wood (Year 6) and Patrick Bloxsom (Year 5) for their achievement in the 2024 Mosman Youth Awards in Literature. Isabelle achieved first place and Patrick achieved second place in the Primary Prose category; an outstanding achievement! Violet Bloxsom (Year 7), who attended the Junior School last year, also achieved a Highly Commended Award in the Years 7-9 Primary Prose category.

Below is an extract from Isabelle’s story about a retired greyhound named Neptune:

Mrs Rebecca Lord
Gifted and Talented Coordinator Junior School and Gawura

What's happening in the music department?

AMEB Success
Congratulations to Bill Pan (Year 5) who recently completed Violin Grade 5 Repertoire with Honours. A wonderful achievement!

Senior students connecting with our Infants through music
During our Stage Choir time on a Friday afternoon, K-2 students have recently enjoyed hearing the talents of our High School musicians.

David Kim (Year 8) came to accompany the choir and to perform for us recently, and we also had one of our chamber music groups perform some of the movements of Carnival of the Animals for our students after our Book Week Parade. Thank you to Ms Szu Yu Chen for organising this wonderful experience for our students.

Individual achievement!

Shuichi Matsumoto (Year 3) – has recently achieved third place in the 8-years and under Own Choice Solo and 8-years and under 20th and 21st Century Solo Piano sections of the Australian National Eisteddfod in Canberra!

Ms Kate Robertson
Head of Music (K-6)

What's happening in the art space?

Students in Year 6 have recently studied the work of contemporary, local artist Jasper Knight - who draws much inspiration from the industrial, mechanical and maritime aspects of Sydney – to re-imagine and create some iconic, vintage images in acrylic. Whilst Knight has tended towards bold limited colour palettes, students drew on single colour palettes or toned hues to paint their own images.

Special mention to artists: Max B, Kushi, Georgie N, Kallarah, Indy, Emma T, Monty, Kate D, Serena.

Our own in-house Young Andrean 2024 Competition is now underway.  For the Art aspect of the competition, students have been encouraged to consider how they can enter the competition by creating a 2D piece of work inspired by LIGHT.

The work is to be created in A3 size: paper, canvas or board and submitted by 21 October 2024. Please contact Ms Daly mdaly@sacs.nsw.edu.au for more information.

Mrs Miriam Daly
Visual Arts Integrator, Junior School and Gawura

Aerobic Gymnastics Success – Evie and Niamh

Over the weekend (17 August) Year 6 students Evie and Niamh participated in the Aerobics Gymnastics State Championships. The girls displayed great talent at the competition picking up two silver medals and a bronze each! Well done Evie and Niamh!

Junior School and Gawura Athletics Carnival

On Thursday 15 August the re-scheduled Junior School and Gawura Athletics Carnival was held at E.S Marks Athletics Field. The soggy conditions didn’t dampen the spirits of all involved. All students participated with enthusiasm and outstanding House spirit. Congratulations to Sailsbury House on winning the House Championship on the day! 

The staff v students v parents relay race was a highlight with staff coming across the line in both gold and silver positions. 

We would like to extend a very big thank you to all the Year 9 PASS students who attended as helpers on the day – without them the carnival would not have been such a success – thank you!

ASISSA Athletics Carnival

On Wednesday 21 August, the ASISSA athletics carnival was held at E.S Marks athletics field. The St Andrew's Junior and Gawura School’s were represented by 60 students from Year 2-6. On a beautiful sunny day the St Andrew's athletes highlighted their talent on the track and on the field. Well done to all students who represented our School so well in all aspects across the day. A special mention to the following students for placing in their events  and making it through to the CIS athletics championships to be held at Sydney Olympic Park on the September 6.

Oliver Chu (Year 6) - 100m 

Esther Davis (Year 6) - 800m

Nyarla Gordon (Year 6) - Shot Put

Maya Hugh (Year 6) - ASISSA Age Champion 12 Year Girls – 100m, 200m, High Jump, Long Jump

Abigail Mather (Year 5) - High Jump

Archie Regan (Year 5) - Discus

Boaz Waterhouse (Year 6) - Shot put

Genevieve Williams (Year 6) - Shot Put, Discus

IPSHA Girls Saturday Sport – Round 5

On Saturday 24 August our girl's touch football teams took on Ascham (Year 5) and SCEGGS Darlinghurst (Year 6) in Round 5 of the IPSHA Term 3 competition. The Year 5 girls came away with an impressive 5-3 win!

IPSHA Girls Saturday Sport – Round 6

On Saturday 31 August, the girl's touch football teams were in action against Kincoppal (Year 5) and Santa Sabina (Year 6). The Year 5 team had a thrilling 5-5 draw. After being 3-0 down the girls clawed it back to play some great touch football in the second half and came away with a draw. This team remains undefeated this term, well done girls!

Mr Oliver Denny
Head of Sport Junior School

Junior School and Gawura Stage 3 Drama: The Thirty-Three Little Pigs

Join us for this joy filled and hilarious production. It’s a fast-paced predator-vs-prey send-up! Get ready to squeal with delight as the 33 pigs in the meadow continuously outsmart the hungry wolf. From Straw, Stick, and Brick pigs to Pirate, Chef and Ninja pigs (plus 27 endearing others!), they each have their chance to misdirect, heckle, and hound the bumbling Big Bad Wolf, who only finds himself further and further from getting his fill of little piggies!

Thursday 12 September 4pm and 6pm shows
Black Box Theatre, BBC

Join us for the 2024 Celebration of Bands Concert!

We warmly invite you to experience a memorable evening of music at our annual Celebration of Bands Concert. Our talented students in the Year 3 Band Programme, Junior Concert Band, Concert Band, Wind Symphony, Jazz Band and Jazz Orchestra are excited to showcase the pieces they've been refining throughout the year.

Don't miss this opportunity to support our young musicians and experience some excellent band music.

Tuesday 17 September, 6.30pm
St Andrew’s Cathedral

Webinar: Understanding grief

In this practical and informative session we will explore the natural grief cycle and the ways in which this can impact on our children and young people.

Strategies for self care and growth will be explored by the expert presenter from the Quest for Life Foundation. We have designed the content to be suitable for our whole school community and especially for parents and carers to watch together with their young person (Years 7-12).

All who register will be sent a recording of the session.

Thursday 19 September, 5pm-6pm
ONLINE

Register for Code Camp!

The Code Camp holiday programme is avaliable for parents to book for the Term 3 break. 

For more information visit the Code Camp website www.codecamp.com.au.

Community Yarn Art Installation

Join us in our 140 Year Celebration of St Andrew’s Cathedral School with colour and creativity! Help yarn wrap the pillar at the front of our School by knitting or crocheting 20cm x 20cm squares in blue, white, and gold. We would love students, staff, Old Andreans, parents, grandparents, our entire community, to get involved. Let's make this a community project – we welcome all skill levels! For details and drop-off locations, visit www.sacs.nsw.edu.au